Olympia

Situated in Pisa (Pisatis), a region adjoining Elis (western Peloponnese, southern Greece), seven-and-a-half miles from the Ionian Sea, at the point where the rivers Alpheus and Cladeus meet at the foot of the hill of Cronus (405 feet), before they break out into the fertile coastal plain

Strabo ascribes the initial fame of Olympia to an oracle of Gaia (Earth), and archaeological evidence indicates continual habitation from c 2800 to c 1100 BC. Olympia was the scene of the most important athletic festival in the world (one of the Great Four, the others being the Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean); it was held there every fourth year in August and September (between the grain harvest and collection of the grapes and olives), for more than a thousand years.

According to Pindar, whose splendid Odes immortalized the victors, the Olympic Games were founded by Heracles; and this was the tradition maintained at Elis. But local traditions of Olympia ascribed their establishment to the legendary Pelops, son of Tantalus—from whom the Peloponnese took its name—after he had killed Oenomaus, king of Pisa, thus acquiring the dead man's daughter Hippodameia as his bride. Tumulus graves ascribed to Pelops and Hippodameia go back to the later years of the second millennium BC, and so also (unless they are earlier still) do cults of Cronus, Gaia, Eileithyia and Themis, round the foot of the hill of Cronus. The worship of Olympian Zeus—who gave the place its name—must have been introduced at the time of the immigrations or invasions ascribed to the Dorian Greeks around the turn of the first millennium. A local athletic contest was held at Olympia at least by c 900, and gradually attracted competitors from farther afield and developed their renown. The traditional date of the first recognized Olympiad is 776—the earliest important event in Greek history to which a date can be attributed, though its author (Hippias of Elis) had no sound reason for its choice. After a series of disputes the control of the Games passed, already in 776 according to Strabo but more probably c 572, from Pisa to the larger unit of Elis, with which it remained, though in 365 the Arcadian League temporarily gained possession of Olympia.

In their final form the Games lasted for five days. The first day was one of preparation and of sacrifices and prayers to the Gods. On the second day were held the chariot race, horse race and `Five Events’ (pentathlon). Since the third day always coincided with the full moon, it was the occasion of further religious functions, leading up to a procession to the altar of Zeus, followed by sacrifices and a feast. In the afternoon came the three juniors' or boys' events. The fourth day witnessed the three senior (men's) running events, and the wrestling, all-in wrestling (pankration) and boxing (at a later date also the men's race in armor). The fifth and last day was devoted to farewell celebrations, including a banquet for the winners, the dedication of thank-offerings, and a final set of sacrifices. Women were excluded from Olympic (as from the other leading) Games, but supplementary running races, in honor of Zeus' wife Hera, were added for female competitors.

Entries were by individuals—who had to be free-born Greeks—and not, as now, by states; and the only prizes awarded were wreaths made from the branches of a sacred olive tree in the precinct of Zeus. But this moderation did not suffice to foster a wholly amateur spirit; for one thing, an Olympic victor might well be rewarded and honored by his city-state for the rest of his life. Three heralds sent out from Elis declared a sacred truce for the duration of the Games, and no war between Greek cities ever prevented these festivals from being held; if states engaged in wars did not lay down arms for the period of the truce, a stiff fine was imposed, calculated according to the numbers of soldiers involved.

Alexander the Great (d. 323) refused to take part in the festival `unless his opponents were kings.’ Four centuries later, however, in AD 67, the emperor Nero made a personal appearance. First he had unprecedentedly postponed the Olympic Games for two years, so that he could have an opportunity to perform in all the `Big Four.’ Then, when the Olympic festival was eventually held, he introduced a series of new musical and dramatic contests—and won them himself. In the chariot competition, too, he rode a team of ten horses; during the race he fell out, but was nevertheless allotted the prize. After his death in the following year the Neronian Games were deleted from the record.

Thereafter the Olympic Games continued to reign supreme, despite more than three hundred rival and imitative series of contests throughout the empire. The Games continued at least until 267 (when Herulian Germans sacked Olympia) and probably thereafter until 393, when Theodosius I banned all pagan cults. In 426 the Olympian sanctuary, the Altis, was burned down. Christian churches were built on the site, and in the sixth century it was overwhelmed by earthquakes and floods. Its partial rediscovery in 1766, 1829 and especially 1875–81 helped to inspire Baron Pierre de Coubertin to resuscitate the Games in 1896, when the first of the revived series was held at Athens.

The Altis precinct formed a rectangle measuring about six hundred and fifty by five hundred feet. It has yielded discoveries of huge numbers of dedicated objects, going back to early dates. The most ancient architectural remains are those of a shrine of Hera (c 600 BC)—probably the first monumental temple on the Greek mainland—containing statues of herself and Zeus; only the head of Hera has been found, but the building yielded the outstanding Hermes by the fourth-century sculptor Praxiteles, preserved in the Olympia museum. Also to be seen in the museum are the pediment sculptures of the temple of Zeus (c 460)—a monument of self-assertion of the new democratic government at Elis—which depicted, at its east end, the chariot race of Pelops and Oenomaus, and at the west end a battle between the Lapıths and Centaurs (at the wedding of Pirithous and Deidamia) quelled by a superb central figure of Apollo; these sculptured groups have been recently reconstructed, with the addition of over three hundred fragments. Most of the original four hundred and fifty column drums of the peristyle have also been identified and measured. Within the temple was an enormous chryselephantine (gold-plated and ivory) seated statue of Zeus by the fifth century Athenian sculptor Phidias. Although his workshop has been located, the statue has vanished, and its appearance can only be inferred from literary descriptions and coins, notably of Elis under Hadrian, (AD 117–38). Of the great adjoining Altar of Zeus scarcely any trace remains.

At a corner of the Altis stood the office of the functionary presiding over the Games, the prytaneum, with a dining room for notables and victorious athletes. Other buildings in the sanctuary included a row of Treasuries of various Greek states erected in the sixth and fifth centuries BC—mostly by cities in south Italy and Sicily—as well as a Metroon (temple of the Mother of the Gods) of about 400, a circular monument (the Philippeum) in honor of King Philip II of Macedonia (d. 336), a portico of a later date within the same century, and an apsed nymphaeum (fountain house) put up by the wealthy Athenian sophist Herodes Atticus (cAD 107–77) to provide Olympia with its first piped supply of water, which had hitherto been supplied by wells.

The early stadium, where the running and the discus- and javelin-throwing competitions were held, had been partly within the boundaries of the Altis, extending along the slope in front of the treasuries; but in the mid-fourth century it was moved to a position wholly outside the precinct, occupying a flat piece of land measuring about 660 by 250 yards. Further south was the Hippodrome where the chariot and horse races were held. Likewise, outside the Altis, near the workshop of Phidias, stood a series of other buildings: a Bouleuterion (Council House or Seat of the Olympic Senate) consisting of a pair of apsidal chambers (later linked by a central hall); a southern portico; a hotel for distinguished visitors (known as the Leonidaeum after its architect of the later fourth century BC, and adapted in the second century AD as a residence for the Roman governor of Achaea); an athletics school (palaestra) of the fourth or third century BC, and a gymnasium of the second. Accommodation for the thousands of spectators was, by modern standards, makeshift, being restricted to standing room only—although seats were provided for a few important personages. Except for these, everyone slept in the open air or in tents.